Samsung Galaxy Mega phablets unveiled in 5.8 and 6.3-inch models

Samsung has unveiled two new jumbo sized devices that sit neatly in the phablet category between smartphones and tablets.

The 5.8-inch and 6.3-inch touchscreen equipped devices were unveiled on Thursday in the device maker's home territory of South Korea. The two devices are the latest in a long line of larger-than-average smartphones from Samsung, most recently following on the heels of the Galaxy S4 announcement.

"We are aware of a great potential in the bigger screen for extensive viewing multimedia, web browsing, and more," JK Shin, head of Samsung's mobile business, said in a statement. "We are excited to provide another choice to meet our consumers' varying lifestyles, all while maintaining the high-quality features of the award-winning Galaxy series."

Both devices will use the same Android 4.2 Jelly Bean version of Google's mobile operating system and will feature dual-core processors, albeit clocked at slightly different speeds - the larger handset uses a 1.7GHz processor, whereas the other uses a 1.4GHz affair.

As the larger of the two, the Galaxy Mega 6.3-inch model also comes with a slightly better spec list ovrerall, which includes a 6.3-inch HD display, 8-megapixel camera, 1.9-megapixel front-facing camera and microSD card support up to 64GB. It will come in a choice of either 8GB or 16GB internal storage.

The 5.8-inch version keeps mostly the same features, although it will only ship with 8GB of internal storage and has a slightly lower resolution 5.8-inch display.

Whichever Mega model buyers opt for, both offer a similar software experience, with both devices including Samsung's Group Play, WatchON, Samsung Link, S Translator and ChatOn apps coming pre-installed.

Despite not having an S-Pen stylus like Samsung's Galaxy Note range, the Mega handsets still make use of the related apps, such as S Memo, S Planner and its split screen multitasking mode.

Pricing and specific availability of the two Mega devices was not announced, but Samsung did say they would be arriving first in Europe and Russia starting in May.